Ongoing training for Cork marathon

Week starting April 1^st

Monday evening I was a reluctant runner. Had spent the day driving around Kerry and Cork on a few domestic chores and the freezing cold weather didn’t encourage me a whole lot either. Any way managed to pull myself out for a 4 mile recovery jog. I tipped away with the usual one minute walking break between each mile hoping the heart rate would drop well below 130. When I came back home after 40 minutes and 4 miles the HR reading was at 173!!!!!. I assume it must be a false reading but very disappointing nevertheless (to put it mildly). The weeks previous running had obviously caught up with me which was further confirmed on Tuesday when I slept in bed till 10.25am. Normally i’m up at 6.30 am (holidays or no holidays) and it was once again with great reluctance I popped out the door. Tuesday is normally either a tempo run or a fast paced effort but the legs were like rocks. Did a 8 mile loop finishing the last mile in 7mins49seconds but in truth it was a laboured effort. I know from experience you will get days and weeks like this. The main thing is to get out there and listen to the body. Again the HR reading was poor. First mile was 200 and the rest between 151 and 159. Average pace was 8mins04seconds.

By Wednesday I felt a lot more rested and went for out a 10 mile jog. These midweek runs have been increasing in distance from 6 miles in January to a decent length now. Will stick with the 10 mile distance for another few weeks before hopefully peaking with 12 or 13 miles. Was a bit tired the last mile but pace was steady enough around 8.20 to 8.23 minute per mile. Hr was a lot more consistent – 150 bpm. It’s probably still 5 beats too high though.

Thursday was the club session in the town park in Mallow. One mile warm with a series of intervals (6 minutes, 3minutes, 90 seconds followed by more of the same with a extra 90 second interval). I felt pretty strong hitting 3.5 miles in total in the session. Finished up with a one mile cooldown with rest day Friday and a enforced rest day Saturday. On Saturday I had planned to the 5K in Doneraile park but household painting chores had to take priority over this one. Also since I am pretty late getting into my marathon plan as compared to previous years I also had to forgo the UCC 10k on the Sunday. Plenty of shorter races coming up plus a few longer ones too so not unduly worried. No my focus today was my long run, not that i was really looking forward to it. Can’t explain why but it happens sometimes. Anyway I didn’t have a Garmin for this one, running with a smaller group than usual. After running 13 miles around Ballyclough I gutted it through for the last 3 miles doing loops of the town park with Kevin finally making up the planned 18 miles in a time of 2hrs37mins or 8.45 pace. The legs were v heavy all the way through but job done.

 

Someone asked me what are my expectations for the Cork marathon. My answer is I don't know. I hope to do two half marathons over the next month possibly 3 and these allied with my long slow runs should hope fully inform me. My mid week running will be based around a recovery run on Monday, tempo session/ speed session/strong running session on Tuesday and Thursday, medium mid paced long (ish) run on Wednesday. I usually find if i stick at it the body adapts and responds accordingly.

 

Total mileage for the week is down a few miles on last week. It came to 45.5 miles and would have been higher had I not pulled out of a 5k race in Doneraile park. Monday 4 miles, Tuesday 8 miles, Wednesday 10 miles, Thursday 5.5 miles, Friday rest, Saturday zero miles, Sunday 18 miles.